Abstract
By the application of principal component analysis to the foot measurements of male and female children aged 3 to 6, reported in part 1, the author discussed the factors of foot form and the differences of principal component scores by sex or age. The results were as follows :
(1) There are no significant differences concerning significances, factor loadings, eigenvalues, and contribu-tion rates of principal components among the results abtained by analyzing the male, female and both sexes data.
Therefore analyzing by both sexes data is effective in grasping the differences of foot form by sex or age.
(2) The 1 st p, c, signifies the size factor that represents total foot mass. The average scores of the 1 st p. c, increase with age in both sexes, and those scores of male are significantly higher than those of female in every age group.
(3) The 2 nd and 3 rd p. c. signify the shape factors, the former representing the proportion of instep height to foot length, the latter the proportion of breadth or girth to length of foot. Both the average scores of the 2 nd and 3 rd p. c. of male are significantly higher than those of female in every age group.
(4) The 4th p. c. signifies the shape factor that represents both width of ball angle and proportion of inner plantar arch length to foot length, while this factor represents individuality of foot form independent of sex or age.
